20 craziest job interview questions

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Actually, Kepler, a contemporary of Galileo, discovered his Laws of Planetary motion. In 1750 Kepler had already been dead for 120 years. Kepler improved on Galileo's telescope.

Newton, who died in 1727 (and invented the first practical reflecting telescope) solidified Kepler's laws.

It was Voltaire who first named "Kepler's Laws" in 1738.

There was certainly an appreciative market for telescopes in 1750. Many users, however, would be wanting them for astrology which was still considered part of what we now think of as astronomy.

if the 8 balls are IDENTICAL, they will all be the same weight

The telescope one is a trick question. (Either that or the person who came up with it is abysmally ignorant of history): "It wouldn't be hard since people DID know about moons and orbits in 1750. This was almost two hundred years after Copernicus and a hundred years after Galileo."

A friend of mine years ago told me that whenever a job interview wasn't going well and he knew he wouldn't get the job, if they ended up with "Do you have any questions for us?" he'd answer, "Yes, I have. If you're in a car going at the speed of light and you turn your headlights on, what happens?" Invariably the interviewer would look confused and say he didn't know, whereupon my friend would say, "Well, I didn't want to work here anyway," and leave. Said it always felt better to leave with the upper hand.

FOR THE 8 BALLS QUESTION THE ANSWER IS 3 WEIGHINGS AND THE STRATEGY IS TO "DIVIDE AND CONQUER"...

Hey, you're a great president, but the question didn't ask for the optimal strategy, it asked for the fewest number of times you'd have to use the scale to find the heaviest ball. The answer is one, but it would only happen occasionally by comparing the balls pairwise. If one of the first two balls is the heaviest it will be heavier than the other one. Your method would always identify the heaviest in the fewest uses of the scale (three), but it could never do it in two.

For the horse race - 1 race, stick all 25 on the same track and let them go....
One the comes first is the fastest, one that comes in next is 2nd fastest......and so on

While interviewing college students I asked for the difference between airline and utility companies. Only 1 out of about 10 students got the answer correct. All I was looking for was an answer stating that airlines are more sensitive to the economy than utilities.

Just a thought about the Jane Street question: You could say "225...in binary".

When interviewing for a job at a CPA firm, I was asked the question "what would you do if you had an extra hour each day". I started my response "After going out to buy a new watch I'd...".

I thought I did well on the interview but didn't get a second interview. My prof called the firm on my behalf and was told my response was "flippant". When I've told this story since then on more than a few occassions someone has told me how clever they thought that response was.

The answer is two weighings thusly: first 3 and 3. second 1 and 1 with the third on the side.

I've had these asked:

1. If you were an animal, what kind would you be? *er, humans are animals...but yeah*

2. Convince me to hire you in 60, no, 10, no...30 seconds, Go! Oh wait, how about 2 minutes?

3. I like to edit people...I've made the last three people in this position cry. Do you have a problem with being edited?

To KC, Kevin : all wrong !

As previously said, result for the balls is two weights. Most people don't think about "equal" results of the weights.

Put 3 balls on each plates (and two out of the plates).
If equal, the heavier ball is one of the two remaining.
If a plate is heavier, it is one of the 3.
Put one ball on each plate. If equal,the heavier ball is the one which is out of the plates.

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For the age problem, it depends if the orientation mater.

It maters : 5 / 5! = 1/24 which is about 4,2%
It doesn't mater : 2x5 / 5! = 1/12 which is about 8,3%

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For the horses, you describe 6 races, but said twice ?!
But you need the top 3, and you just found the first. You need one more race to know who are 2nd and 3rd.

My thoughts:

For the balls:
Once. Place 4 balls on each side, one will be heavier than the other. Take note of which side is heavier, remove one ball from each side simultaneously until equal, ball removed from heavier side is the heavy ball or until left with a heavier side with one ball in each side.

Identical, means identical looking

For the staircase:
N^2

For the age thing:
5! / 5^5 = 3.84%

For the horses:
Twice. Divide horses into groups of 5. Race them to see who the top 5 fastest in each race are, race them again to determine top 3. Doesn't matter if there is a tie. Just remove the slowest of the top 3 and replace with faster tie.

For google : let's call u(n) the number of way to climb.

If you move one step, then you'll have u(n-1) ways to climb.
If you move two steps, then you'll have u(n-2) ways to climb.

So u(n) = u(n-1) + u(n+2)

Which is the Fibonacci numbers, with u(0) = 1 and u(1) = 1 : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibonacci_number

and a very complicated formal expression based on the golden ratio.

The number of horse races is 7.

5 with different horses.

1 with all the 1st.

1 with 2nd and 3rd of the group of the 1st of the 6th race, 1st and 2nd of the group 2nd of the 6th, and the 3rd of the 6th race.

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225 is 9 x 5 x 5. So the number of one must be a multiple of 9, and because of the 5s at least 2 zeros at the end.
11111111100 is a multiple of 225.

"You are climbing a staircase. Each time you can either take one step or two. The staircase has n steps. In how many distinct ways can you climb the staircase?"
-- Each time what..? Each time I climb the staircase or each time I take a step..? And, I'm climbing the staircase.. not I'm 'going to climb the staircase at least once' or something..?

"How do you evaluate Subway’s five-foot long sub policy?"
-- Uhh.. by first finding out if Subway has a policy about subs that are five-feet long.

"Suppose you had eight identical balls. One of them is slightly heavier and you are given a balance scale. What’s the fewest number of times you have to use the scale to find the heavier ball?"
-- If one ball is slightly heavier then they are NOT identical.

Some of those are situational interview questions -- rather common in a lot of industries. Personally, I think that some questions (e.g. number of cocktail umbrellas in the US, the Google stairs question, the divisible by 225, or probability of seating) are perfectly normal questions.

I've asked several of these questions to potential candidates, and continue to. These are the questions that you ask to separate the smart ones from the rest.

I see that Katherine and Ali have the right idea. Good job, ladies!

" Suppose you had eight identical balls. One of them is slightly heavier and you are given a balance scale. What’s the fewest number of times you have to use the scale to find the heavier ball?"

Y'all are thinking so hard, you're missing the easy answer! This isn't a math problem, it's one to see if you make mountains out of molehills in your thought processes. The fewest number of times is one. The largest number is four. If you're lucky, you'll get the heavier ball on the first time & that would make it the least number of times.